Existing spreadsheet .xls opens in writer NOT calc?

[Lorinda]

If you experience this with an .xls file that you can make public, you should file a bug in Bugzilla and attach the file. At least then we could track down whether it is an OpenOffice.org bug or a Neooffice bug. But I'm guessing that since the origin of these files is your credit card company, they aren't something you can share.

I haven't had any trouble opening xls files in Calc, but then I don't receive xls files from outside sources very often.

Please keep in mind that much of your complaint is related to the way that OpenOffice.org is structured; none of us here have any control over that. The NeoOffice project is limited to keeping a Mac native version of OpenOffice.org running on the Mac. The NeoOffice project doesn't have the resources (neither the time or money) to re-engineer OpenOffice.org to separate out the modules or to improve the xls filters.

[HarryBo]

I have the same problem and maybe an explanation: I also get auto-generated xls files. But if you take a closer look, you will find out, that they are not really xls files, but html files with a table inside that are saved with xls extension so that they will be opened by Excel.

What NeoOffice does: it loads the file, checks the content, sees it is html and opens the default (but in this case incorrect) application for html: Writer!

This is not really helpful for users with that specific problem, but maybe it helps the developers to find a way to prevent us from it.

[thanson]

Like others in this thread, I too have been frequently befuddled by this unfortunate issue. Does anyone have any helpful insight? Is there any way to get spreadsheets downloaded from a web interface to open in Calc (and not Writer/Web)?

Might there be any way to edit the file such that the HTML is stripped out and only the spreadsheet info. remains? Any way for NeoOffice to see the .xls portions of the file and simply default to that information?

As I'm frequently generating spreadsheet from online interfaces, this would be a really, really helpful fix/adjustment!

[jgd]

You might have a look at this page in NeoWiki which explains how to import an HTML table into Calc.

Hope that helps.

Jacqueline

[thanson]

jgd - Thanks for the tip! After a few tweaks to the instructions at the NeoWiki I was able to make it happen - I got a an .xls file with an HTML wrapper (downloaded from an online database) to open in Calc and not in Writer/Web. Here's how...

My assumption is that you've got the troublesome spreadsheet saved to your local machine - that is, the file that has the embedded HTML forcing it to open in Writer/Web.

* Open a new blank spreadsheet in Calc.
* In the Insert menu, choose Link to External Data...
* The External Data window appears asking you for the "URL of external data source" - obviously, you don't need the URL as the file is already on your hard drive. So then, click the browse button ("...") just to the right of the URL field. Browse to the location of the spreadsheet, select the file, and Calc will attempt to find the data tables in the spreadsheet. In my experience, this was not a quick process - be prepared to wait a minute or two as Calc digs though the file attempting to make sense of what it's found.
* Once Calc has sifted through the file you'll see a few choices in the Available tables/ranges section - I had several options from which to choose, including HTML_tables, HTML_all, and HTML_1.
* Select the table you want to insert into the spreadsheet and click OK. I simply selected HTML_all and got what I needed, but I suppose that you could select only specific tables if you wanted to exclude some data.

Almost forgot - after selecting HTML_all, I had another lengthy wait (about 2 minutes) as Calc worked to place the data into the spreadsheet; nevertheless, the wait was worth it as I had all 210 records properly imported into my new Calc spreadsheet!

[sardisson]

We should add thanson's steps to the wiki article, since this particular problem seems to be common....

Smokey

[Lorinda]

I did a quick copy and paste into the article Jacquline mentioned. It needs some polishing...mostly applying templates. We also probably need to add a link on the NeoCalc page with a title like "xls files open in Writer" to make it easier for those who are searching for solutions to this problem.

Lorinda